Rowe, the Galaxy’s starting goalkeeper, had to watch from home as the team went on last week’s two-city Eastern Conference road trip.

Rowe was knocked out of the Aug. 13 game against Colorado after he took an inadvertent knee to the head from teammate Nigel de Jong.

“Knowing that I came out better for wear, it probably could have been worse, I can watch it,” Rowe said of the replay. “I know I’m OK now, so I can look at it. I think for people watching for the first time though, it is one of those that I got a lot of reactions like, ‘Man, that’s bad.’”

Rowe received nine staples on the top of his head. He returned to training with the regular club Friday, working with a protective soft helmet, and hopes to return for Saturday night’s Western Conference game against Vancouver.

He said the staples were removed Monday.

“I feel great,” Rowe said Friday. “I had a good week of training with Galaxy II, I’ve been getting some good sessions in and I feel good, feel like I haven’t really lost a step.

“I’m still working with the medical staff, trying to make sure everything is good. I’ll be ready when I need to be. I think we’re getting there.”

Clement Diop replaced Rowe on the road trip. Dan Kennedy, who replaced Rowe when he initially suffered the injury against Colorado, was the backup.

“He made some great saves and he showed his inexperience at times,” Arena said of Diop. “We’ve watched him the last couple of years with Galaxy II and he’s come a long way, but he’s still not the finished product. It is going to take some time, he’s a young goalkeeper.”

Arena didn’t offer much in terms of will be starting in goal Saturday.

With an average of 0.92 goals against, Rowe spent the week going through the necessary steps of the league’s concussion protocol program after staying away from the field for a few of days.

“I felt good when I came back, really wasn’t having many symptoms, which I was fortunate for,” Rowe said. “I got on the bike for 30 minutes, light exercise. There’s a concussion test we do on the iPad that we had a baseline for, to kind of compare how I’m doing with some memory recall and balance. We did that each day and then we started doing more strenuous workouts and back on the field, doing handling, and then I could start diving and easing my way back into it.”

This will be the first of consecutive home games for the Galaxy, with Vancouver and Columbus (Sept. 3) situated near the bottom of their respective standings. The Galaxy is one of four teams undefeated at home (6-0-6).

The Galaxy, however, is 0-1-4 in its past five games.

“It is important that the win comes and comes very soon and we would like for that to be tomorrow (Saturday),” Galaxy midfielder Steven Gerrard said. “The only way we’re going to get that win is if we defend properly and we’re aggressive in attack as well.

“We’ve been OK of late, I wouldn’t criticize, I don’t think we’ve been that bad. We just need that maximum (three) points and that’ll put us in a nice position in the league.”

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS at L.A. GALAXY

Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at StubHub Center

TV/Radio: Time Warner Cable Sports Net; KTMZ/1220

Update: The Whitecaps (8-12-6) are in ninth place in the Western Conference with 30 points. Vancouver defeated Sporting Kansas City 2-0 in a league game Aug. 20. In a rematch three days later, the Whitecaps won 3-0 in CONCACAF Champions League play. The Whitecaps will be without midfielder Christian Bolanos, serving a one-game suspension due to “violent conduct that endangered the safety of an opponent” in the Aug. 20 game against Sporting Kansas City. This is the third meeting between the Galaxy and Whitecaps. They played to a scoreless draw April 2 in Vancouver. The Galaxy won the other meeting 2-0 on July 4.

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